Hello Everyone,

It's looking very Christmassy in Penhallow this week, and we have been practicing hard, for our Christmas performance. We are looking forward to seeing you on Tuesday at 11:00 or at 2:00.

This week we have also enjoyed decorating the classroom, and learning about a different nativity character each day. We have also been practicing our Christmas songs with plenty of enthusiasm.

As you will have read in the letter that went out this week, as part of our RE learning this half term, we will be visiting Polperro Methodist church on Wednesday afternoon. As the weather has been quite wet recently, please can you make sure your child has a waterproof coat available for our walk to and from the church. 

During our English lessons this week, we have started to learn the story of 'The Magic Snow Globe'. We have written some lovely setting descriptions of a Wintery scene. Some of our older children in the class have used similes and alliteration, while all of us have been able to use noun phrases including some fantastic adjectives. 

As always , there have been plenty of hands on learning activities in Penhallow. This week, this has included investigating magnets, which has linked to our learning about the North and South Pole. We have also been investigating ice and materials for keeping warm which has linked to our learning about polar animals.

We look forward to seeing you next week.

From The Penhallow Team

Our Children Celebrate the Festive Season at the Christmas Tree Festival

This week, our school community had the joy of visiting the Christmas Tree Festival at St Nicholas and Faith Church.

It was a wonderful opportunity for our children to experience the festive spirit in a beautiful and meaningful setting. The festival was a feast for the senses, with each tree uniquely decorated and brimming with creativity.

Our children were fascinated by the imaginative designs and the care that had gone into each display. The children reflected on themes of kindness, creativity and excellence linking beautifully with our school values. 

We are grateful to St Nicholas and Faith Church for hosting this event and for welcoming our children so warmly. Experiences like these enrich our curriculum, bringing learning to life and helping our children make connections between their classroom experiences and the wider world. As we move closer to the holiday season, this visit has reminded us all of the joy of community, creativity and the simple magic of Christmas.

Brunel shines at Lantern Parade

Tonight, Brunel proudly took our place in the annual Lantern Parade in Saltash - a wonderful tradition that brings our community together to celebrate the start of the festive season.

This year's route led us all the way down to the beautiful Saltash Waterside, where the parade came to a spectacular end with an incredible firework display lighting up the river. It was a magical moment for everyone involved!

A huge thank you to all the children, families, and members of our school community who joined us and represented Brunel with such enthusiasm. Your creativity, lanterns and festive spirit made the evening truly special. We would also like to express our sincere thanks to Saltash Town Council for organising this much-loved annual event - it's a highlight of the year and a wonderful way to bring the town together. Christmas is certainly on the horizon.. and what a brilliant way to begin the celebrations!

Another week comes to an end in Landaviddy, and we have finally entered December! This week, we have focused on Christmas play rehearsals and refining the songs for our performances which will take place on Thursday 11th December at 2pm and 6pm. If you haven't done so already, please make sure your costume is in by Monday 8th December, ready for our dress rehearsal on Wednesday next week. 

During Wider Curriculum lessons this week, we were thrilled to take on the role as archaeologists in History, where we analysed specimens of ancient Stone Age poo to determine Stone Age diets. YUCK! We learnt about how diets changed from the Palaeolithic to Mesolithic and enjoyed using tools to examine evidence. In Computing, we began planning for our own Stone Age inspired stop motion animations. We can't wait to bring these to life next week! 

In English, we have been writing up our final Stone Age stories using pen, which has been a big thrill and required a lot of patience. Next week, we will assess our writing and start a new unit focusing on some christmassy shape poems! We have continued working hard on addition and subtraction in Maths, adding 2-digit and 3-digit numbers together, using the column method.

Congratulations to Esme and Tommy for being chosen as Landaviddy's People of the Week. And a big well done to Theo for achieving his 55 club! 

We hope you have a great weekend, despite the weather, and look forward to seeing you next week! 

Mrs Wilkie, Mrs Lister and Miss Colton

Another week has flown by and Chaipel have been busy. Our Mayan narratives are now complete and we have been editing and improving a section we like the most. Next week, we will write up our work in best and assess our writing targets for next half term.

In Maths, we have been identifying and comparing equivalent fractions, learning how to simplify and plotting fractions on a numberline. We have had some real 'lightbulb' moments and Joey now, "really likes fractions!" RESULT!!

In our Wider Curriculum, we have been exploring why Christians believe Jesus was the anionted one in RE, learning about the Mayan writing system - including designing our own glyphs - in History, and identifying major cities in the UK and how they get their energy in Geography.

NEXT WEEK
We will be practising our play most of next week and will need all costumes in by WEDNESDAY 10th. It is looking really good now and we can't wait to entertain parents on the 15th. 

Congratulations to Immy - who achieved her 66 Club this week - and to Leo and Joey for being our People of the Week, demonstrating our school values and being role models to their peers.

Finally... 
Thank you to all who came to our Christmas Fair on Friday; we value your continued support.

That's all for this week,
Miss Randle and Mrs Clary.

This Week in Reception and Year 1

We've had a wonderfully full and exciting week of learning across both Reception and Year 1, with lots of enthusiasm and brilliant effort from all the children.

In History, Year 1 have been delving into the story of the Gunpowder Plot. We spent time discussing what went wrong for Guy Fawkes and his fellow plotters, and the children really enjoyed exploring the events through both primary and secondary sources. They are beginning to understand how we know about things that happened long ago, and why different types of sources can give us different information.

In Maths, Year 1 successfully completed their unit on place value to 100. We revisited counting forwards and backwards, comparing numbers, and partitioning tens and ones. The children showed great progress and confidence. Next week, we will be moving on to an exciting new unit all about shape, where the children will explore 2D and 3D shapes, talk about their properties, and begin to sort and classify them.

Year 1 have also been working incredibly hard on their assessments this week. We are very proud of the effort, resilience, and concentration they have shown. They should all feel very proud of themselves.

In Science, the focus has been on the life cycle of a butterfly. The children learned about the four stages-egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, and butterfly-and were fascinated to discover how dramatically a butterfly changes as it grows. We looked at pictures, discussed each stage, and had some lovely conversations about other animals that also change as they grow.

In English, both the children and teachers had a real treat as we began exploring performance poetry. The class watched Michael Rosen's famous poem Chocolate Cake, and they were completely mesmerised by his expression, gestures, and humour. This led to lots of laughter and brilliant discussions about how poets use their voices and actions to bring their words to life. We will continue exploring performance poetry next week as the children start to have a go at performing lines themselves.

Meanwhile, both Reception and Year 1 have been deeply involved in their nativity practice. Songs are being sung with growing confidence, lines are being learned, and the children are really starting to bring the story to life. Their hard work and enthusiasm are shining through, and it is already looking absolutely fantastic. We can't wait to share it with you!

We finished the week off dressed as elves, what a week!!

Its has been an exciting week of rehearsals, dress ups and trips!

Despite our topsy-turvy time tables, we have managed to get oodles of learning into our days this week. In Literacy, we have started a new unit of work - we are learning how to write instructions. We had a go at writing our own instructions for our learning partners and then looked at how we could have made them better. Then we looked at some different instructions and compared them to find out what we could include in our own. In Maths, we continued our inquiry into shapes by looking at the vertical line of symmetry. We have even had a go at completing different 2D shapes by using our knowledge of the vertical line of symmetry. Who knew using a ruler was this tricky!

We have also been working super hard at learning our cues and timings for our Nativity next week. Thank you Class 2 families for helping your children learn all their lines and for making time to get their costumes ready. We can't wait to see you all next week for our 3 super-duper performances. If you haven't got them yet, please make sure you contact the office for your tickets before its too late. However, the best part of the week was our class trip to the Sterts Theater for a fabulous puppet show. It was so awesome to see all the children so engaged and its was joy to watch their tiny eyes light up with wonder!

Finally, a very well done to:
> Sofia for getting the Ready Award for her diligence and hard work, especially during Literacy lessons.
> Ivy for getting the Respectful Award for always being polite and kind.
> Jimmy for getting the Safe Award for listening to and following instructions, and keeping safe during our trip.

Friday 5th December

Some of this week's wonderful exploration has included:

On Monday we were shocked to discover the Christmas Elves had indeed visited us and they had decorated our whole room beautifully. They had left us a lovely note and a book advent calendar (and maybe a chocolate one too!) They have been leaving lots of mess for Mrs Phillips to clean up this week. They have eaten our fruit, had a snowball fight with the adult's cotton balls and then splash disappeared last night and we found her in Mrs Waring's pocket in assembly!!!

In English this week the children explored the Christmas Story. They then sequenced the story into their books using some amazing oracy skills! The children's vocabulary is really progressing well.

In maths we have been learning how to represent numbers to five in different ways, for instance 3+1= 4 but 2+ 2 = 4 too!

This week the children have also made Nativity scenes, designed and decorated their own Christmas tree and Christmas jumper, made a manager and stable from building blocks and Lego and so much more!

It was Christmas Crafternoon on Tuesday, and the children loved completing Christmas craft with you all.

The Christmas magic has definitely arrived in class and we are using lots of Christmas activities to progress our learning, knowledge and skills!

Have a lovely weekend

The Foundation Team 

It has been a busy week leading up to our Christmas performance which is on Monday afternoon. The children have been practicing their singing and are sounding great. We look forward to performing it for everyone!

The children have been enjoying our Christmas themed role play area and have been busy creating lots of lovely craft to take home at the end of term.

At storytime we have enjoyed books including "Hurry Santa" and "Santa needs a wee".
During phonics, the children have been identifying and grouping initial sounds of different words and trying to identify instrumental sounds and matching them.
They have also been trying hard to listen to different rhyming words.

In maths we have been ordering numbers and matching numeral and quantity and exploring patterns.

Have a great weekend

Julie and Sarah

"Christmas Tree oh Christmas Tree!"

The Christmas countdown has begun and the advent calendar has a few windows open. Here are some photos of the class solving the treasure hunt at the Christmas Tree Festival. We were lucky enough to walk down to St. Nicholas and Faith Church yesterday to see them all. It was incredibly festive and it put us in a Christmassy mood. 

In English, we have been writing our Jack and the Beanstalk stories. So far we have started out story by introducing and describing Jack. Here are some of my favourite extracts from their work:

"...his emerald-green eyes, bright and wide with curiosity."
"Jack was a young , adventurous boy with hopes and dreams."
"He was as scrawny as a plucked chicken with hair like liquid copper."

In maths, we have continued our work on shape by finding missing angles in quadrilaterals and polygons. Next week, we will look at circles and drawing shapes accurately. 

I hope to see you all at Hunt the Issy tonight and the lantern parade tomorrow. 

Have a great weekend!

Miss Burton

It's been a great week at Darite. Thank-you to those parents and children who braved the weather on Saturday at the Liskeard Lights Up parade. It was wet and wild but the children represented the school amazingly and the lanterns got lots of praise from the crowds! It was lovely to see the parents and carers in the hall on Tuesday for Class 1's "Crafternoon". The decorations look amazing and it really is beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Talking of Christmas, the reindeer run for St Luke's hospice was a great success again yesterday. The children looked amazing and their antlers really set the mood! Sarah from the hospice was amazed by the money we raised all of which will go to support this charity. Next week is our nativity on Thursday. Tickets are selling like hot cakes so get them on ParentPay while you can! Children should also have come home with a sheet of raffle tickets for the PTFA raffle. There are some great prizes on offer so please, if you can offer them around, all money raised will support the school. If you need more sheets, let us know! Can I again remind you that if your children are going with another parent, please let the office know either by phone or email before 12.30. If plans change after than time, please email Mrs Lake or myself so that we can release the children. If we do not have confirmation from a parent or carer, we will have to contact you to check which can delay the end of the day. We appreciate that sometimes plans change last minute and we will contact you if that is the case. Thank-you for your understanding. A reminder too that the final day (Friday the 19th) is a half day and children can be collected at 1.30. If you will be unable to collect your child, can you let the office know so we can plan accordingly. Finally, we are lucky to be part of the Parental Engagement Framework this year. This is a county-wide initiative designed to further link the community, parents and school together to support all members of the school community on aspects that are important to school and the future. Part of this work is working with a parental "Steering Group". This is a small group of parents or carers who will work closely with myself on guiding this process so that it benefits the school. If you would like to be part of this group, please let Mrs Norris know and I will arrange a meeting with you in the new year.

We have been busy with rehearsals for our Christmas performances all week and are very much looking forward to seeing Nursery perform on Monday, Penhallow Class on Tuesday, and Landaviddy Class on Thursday next week.

Choir Well done to our wonderful choir, who sang beautifully for the residents at Atlantis Care Home yesterday afternoon. They certainly helped to put everyone in the Christmas spirit!

Football Congratulations to our football team, who played brilliantly in their second match yesterday despite the pouring rain. The final score was 6-3 to Downderry in spite of Polperro's huge efforts and excellent teamwork.

Polperro Christmas Lights and Lantern Procession Saturday 6th December, before the Christmas lights switch-on in Polperro, there will be a lantern procession. Willow lanterns, handmade by children at the school, will be available for the children to carry. Each lantern has been created collaboratively by groups of pupils from all our classes, and the materials have been generously funded by the Christmas Lights Committee. Children, accompanied by their parents, should gather at TURNTABLE PIZZA, Big Green at 4:30pm to collect a lantern, ready to set off promptly at 4:45pm. If your child carries a lantern, please ensure the cane is returned to school afterwards so it can be reused next year. Please note that although school staff will be present at the procession, children remain the responsibility of their parents at all times.

Kernow Health Flu Clinics Kernow Health will be running flu clinics at various locations across Cornwall in early/mid-December, by appointment only. Contact details 01872 221105 or email kernowhealthcic.schoolimmunisation@nhs.net for further information or see attached poster for details.

Blackbird Pie Magazine Did you know that parents/carers can access Blackbird Pie magazine for free on BorrowBox using their library card? If the printed copy is lost, crumpled at the bottom of a school bag, or simply never made it home, it's quick and easy to read the magazine on any personal device. BorrowBox is completely free to use with a Cornwall Libraries membership and offers instant access to Blackbird Pie along with a wide range of children's eBooks, eAudiobooks and eMagazines - perfect for days when families need inspiration for things to do. If you aren't already members, you can sign up for FREE online in minutes or pop into any Cornwall Library.

Diary Dates The last day of term is on Friday 19th December and school will finish at 1:30pm. Monday 5th January is an INSET day, therefore the first day of the Spring term for the children is Tuesday, 6th January.

Have a lovely weekend.

It has been a busy week at Team Brunel and we still have Hunt the Issy this evening and the Lantern Parade tomorrow evening on Saltash Fore Street. The children attending will be able to collect their lanterns from Drill Hall HQ from 5:30pm tomorrow evening. In the meantime, sit back, relax and enjoy this week's edition of The Brunel Bulletin.

Thank you to Duchy College for hosting a great cross country event. Some of our running club members took it to the field and all placed in the top 50 of their age categories - well done to you all. A special nod to one of our runners who placed 2nd and received a lovely certificate of congratulations!